Jazz Articles about Owen Broder

About Owen Broder

Album Review

A great party is never just an event. It is a sequence of emotions, encounters, expectations, surprises, fleeting romances, moments of reflection, and, ultimately, gratitude. On A Marvelous Party, Duchess (Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner, Melissa Stylianou) transforms that universal experience into an irresistible jazz journey. More than a collection of standards and popular songs, this is a carefully conceived concept album that traces the cycle of a memorable gathering from invitation to farewell. Throughout the program, arranger Oded ...

Album Review

Owen Broder: Hodges: Front and Center: Vol. Two

Read "Hodges: Front and Center: Vol. Two" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
April 14, 2024

Owen Broder's Hodges : Front and Center Vol.Two is a respectful yet refreshing tribute to Johnny Hodges, a saxophonist with an iconic sound while injecting a contemporary vitality into the mix. Hodges' influence looms large throughout the album, guiding Broder's approach to the music. In this quintet's musical journey, Broder, on both alto and baritone saxophone, is accompanied by trumpeter Riley Mulherkar, pianist Carmen Staaf, bassist Barry Stephenson and drummer Bryan Carter. In both his playing and composing, Hodges showed ...

Album Review

Owen Broder: Hodges: Front and Center: Vol. Two

Read "Hodges: Front and Center: Vol. Two" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 10, 2024

At times, while listening to random classics in the collection, one can have the idea that everything in jazz evolved from the late '40s to early '50s bebop. But before bop was swing. Duke Ellington stayed with swing through bop, funk, and fusion. And so did alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges (1906-1970), who played in Ellington's band from its early days, the late-1920s. A much-admired player with a distinctive tone and a beautiful way with a melody, Hodges also ...

Radio & Podcasts

Respect the Rabbit! (Owen Broder Interview)

by Patrick Burnette
April 4, 2024

For some fans, the story of jazz saxophone begins with John Coltrane. This episode, the boys interview Owen Broder, who gives propers to Coltrane's old boss, Johnny Hodges. Mainstay of the Duke Ellington band and lover of lettuce and tomato sandwiches, the Rabbit (as he was known) possessed the most sumptuous sound ever heard from an alto saxophone and knew every microtone of the territory between each note of the scale. Owen talks about his Hodges Front and Center duology, ...

Radio & Podcasts

Anthony Orgeta, Johnny Hodges & Owen Broder

by Joe Dimino
November 27, 2022

With a healthy dose of reverence, we begin the 778th Episode of Neon Jazz with Brooklyn saxophonist Owen Broder doing his take of “Royal Garden Blues" off his 2022 project Hodges Front and Center Volume 1. From there, we hear from Johnny Hodges himself with the song “Rabbit Pie" followed by the talented Melody Diachun covering Sting. Then, we hear from Sting himself with “A Touch of Jazz." Then it's on to a good dose of new material from Ernesto ...

Album Review

Owen Broder: Hodges: Front and Center, Vol.1

by Pierre Giroux
November 5, 2022

Johnny Hodges was a unique instrumentalist whose alto saxophone playing was readily recognizable due to his tone, phrasing, and melodic engagement in improvisation. For the greater part of his musical life, he was anchored in the middle chair of the Duke Ellington Orchestra's saxophone section. However Hodges never turned down an opportunity to stretch out in a small group setting on such albums as Back To Back and Side By Side. Additionally, there were several sessions with organist Wild Bill ...

Album Review

Cowboys & Frenchmen: Our Highway

Read "Our Highway" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 20, 2021

Okay, the name may be rather out of the ordinary (Cowboys & Frenchmen?), but once past that, what remains is a burnished New York City-based quintet whose music might best be described as decidedly liberated and contemporary. This isn't “free" jazz wherein each member of the group goes his own separate way; there is, however, a large share of free-lancing within the established boundaries of melody, harmony and rhythm that moderate all save the most ungoverned forms of the music. ...